Student, Faculty Dissent A New Challenge For Dixie, Community

After Dixie State College officials removed a statue of Confederate soldiers on Dec. 6, senior Greg Noel told KSL-TV that the school must address the school’s apparent history of racial insensitivity or the controversy "will foster more issues and more situations and more conflict until it just bursts."

An African-American senior from Las Vegas who serves as a peer adviser and as student vice president for clubs, Noel believed he was exercising his right to free expression. But he later learned his televised remarks prompted administrators to investigate whether he had violated school policies.

The incident reflects the pressure some campus sources say Dixie’s dean of students, Del Beatty, is putting on elected student leaders, such as Noel and president Brody Mikesell, to tone down their advocacy for retiring their school’s century-old Dixie name.

Administrators, however, deny they are pressuring students. Vice president for student services Frank Lojko, who oversees Beatty, denied administrators probed Noel’s KSL remarks. But a Dixie staffer, who asked to not be named for fear of retaliation, confirmed the scrutiny of Noel’s interview.